More companies pushing retirees to insurance exchanges

The golden years of retirement keep turning to garbage for an increasing number of people as more companies shed promises to provide health insurance for former employees. And people wonder why the rich keep getting richer and middle class folks feel so embattled.

The golden years of retirement keep turning to garbage for an increasing number of people as more companies shed promises to provide health insurance for former employees.

Time Warner Inc. is directing retired workers to privately run insurance exchanges, joining General Electric and International Business Machines Corp. Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act of 2010, gives them that option.

About 44 percent of companies plan to stop administering health plans for former employees in the next two years, Bloomberg News reports. The public exchanges are set to open Oct. 1 under Obamacare, enabling people to select from a menu of private health care plans, which they will pay for on their own.

The health care change adds to companies eliminating pension plans and going with 401(k)-type programs for retirement. All of it is designed to cut companies’ costs.

And people wonder why the rich keep getting richer and middle class folks feel so embattled.